Education Providers Q3 2024 Call Centre Rankings
Introduction
ACXPA’s benchmarking initiative provides valuable insights into the performance of a selection of Australian Education Providers call centres, offering a detailed analysis of customer experience and accessibility.
Our comprehensive evaluation is based on over 80 metrics derived from the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, delivering a holistic view of the sector’s performance.
The analysis focuses on new course enquiries, simulating real-life scenarios of potential students seeking information about a new course they are considering to enrol in. These high-stakes interactions are pivotal in the fiercely competitive retail internet market and reveal critical opportunities for growth and improvement.
By applying realistic scenarios, our trained Australian-based mystery shoppers uncover key challenges and opportunities in these interactions, helping education providers identify gaps, refine processes, and enhance their ability to convert leads into loyal customers.
Importantly, ACXPA’s benchmarking initiative not only equips education providers with the tools to improve their individual performance, but also serves as a vital mechanism to raise standards across the education sector, ultimately benefiting businesses and students alike.
Table of Contents:
Click below to go straight to a key section.
Highest/Lowest Rankings (ACXPA Subscribers & Members Only)
Report Downloads, YTD and Lifetime Averages (ACXPA Subscribers & Members Only)
Executive Summary
The Q3 2024 public report delivers key insights into customer experience (CX) performance within the education sector, benchmarking metrics such as Overall CX Scores, Agent Mastery Scores, Accessibility Rankings, Average Wait Times, and Calls Answered.
Business-specific results and overall sector trends are summarised below, showcasing improvements and identifying areas for growth. ACXPA Subscribers (free) and Members (paid) enjoy access to additional insights, while our paid Education Providers CX Benchmarking service provides over 80 detailed metrics for education providers to help them optimise their performance and compare their results to any five nominated education providers of their choice.
1. Overall CX Scores
Sector Trends
• The sector-wide Overall CX ranking for Q3 2024 averaged 64.5%, an increase from 59.1% in Q2 2024 (+6.4%), making it the highest-ranked sector across all industries.
• Rankings for individual providers varied significantly, from 54.6% (TAFE WA) to 75.0% (Holmesglen TAFE), which has led the sector every quarter since reporting began in August 2023.
Business Highlights
• Holmesglen TAFE has consistently led the sector every quarter, setting a clear benchmark.
• After three consecutive quarters in last place, TAFE QLD achieved a +28% improvement to secure their best quarterly result of 69.0%, ranking second behind Holmesglen TAFE.
• TAFE SA was the only provider to experience a decline, with their score falling 4.2% to 62.6%.
2. Agent Mastery Scores
Sector Trends
• The average Agent Mastery Score for Q3 2024 was 53.5%, the highest to date and an improvement from 51.0% in Q2 2024. This ranking positioned the education sector third overall across all industries assessed.
• Scores ranged from 40.6% (TAFE WA) to 70.1% (Holmesglen TAFE), underscoring the need for improved employee training in lower-performing providers.
• Among the five Agent Mastery competencies, ‘ENERGY’ saw the largest improvement (+9.3% to 73.1%), driven by gains in ‘Empathy’ (+13.9%) and ‘Control’ (+13.0%).
• Despite strong ENERGY rankings, the ‘ENGAGE’ competency continued to decline, dropping 5.6% to 24.5%, the second-lowest result across all industries. This metric reflects employees’ ability to build trust, personalise interactions, and take ownership.
Business Highlights
• Holmesglen TAFE continues to lead the sector with an Agent Mastery Score of 70.1%, maintaining its top position since reporting began.
•TAFE WA remained the lowest performer at 40.6%, consistently ranking last, suggesting systemic challenges in training and coaching.
• TAFE QLD recorded their best result of 59.5% (+15.7%), securing second place in Q3 2024.
3. Accessibility Rankings
Sector Trends
• The sector achieved an average Accessibility Ranking of 90.4% in Q3 2024, the highest score for both the education sector and any industry since records began. This reflects exceptional ease in connecting to live agents.
• Scores ranged from 83.9% (TAFE NSW) to 97.7% (TasTAFE), which was the highest Accessibility score nationally across all sectors in Q3 2024.
Business Highlights
• TasTAFE led the sector with an Accessibility Ranking of 97.7%, showcasing exemplary call routing and operational efficiency. It has consistently led the sector every quarter since August 2023.
• TAFE NSW, though ranked last, achieved their best result to date at 83.9%, reflecting the sector’s overall high standards for live agent accessibility.
4. Average Wait Times
Sector Trends
• The sector’s average wait time for Q3 2024 was 30 seconds, ranking it first across all industries, including highly competitive sectors like energy, insurance, and internet retail.
• Wait times ranged from 11 seconds (TAFE QLD) to 58 seconds (TAFE WA).
Business Highlights
• TAFE QLD led the sector with the shortest average wait time of 11 seconds, narrowly surpassing TasTAFE at 12 seconds.
• All providers improved their wait times in Q3 2024, with reductions ranging from -5 seconds (TAFE WA) to -300 seconds (TAFE QLD).
• The longest wait time recorded in Q3 2024 for any month was 01:39 minutes (TAFE NSW) in September 2024.
5. Calls Answered
Sector Trends
• The sector achieved a perfect 100% Calls Answered rate, with no calls left unanswered within a 10-minute wait time, making it the only sector to achieve this result.
Business Highlights
• Four providers—Holmesglen TAFE, TAFE NSW, TAFE WA, and TasTAFE—have maintained a 100% Calls Answered rate throughout 2024.
Conclusion
The Q3 2024 report highlights remarkable achievements and ongoing challenges in the education sector’s CX performance:
• Holmesglen TAFE continues to lead the sector in multiple metrics, setting a clear benchmark for excellence.
• TasTAFE sets a national standard for Accessibility, achieving the highest recorded score across all industry sectors.
• The sector’s perfect Calls Answered rate underscores a strong commitment to customer satisfaction.
While improvements are evident across most metrics, areas like Agent Mastery, particularly in the ENGAGE competency, reveal opportunities for targeted employee training and development.
With steady progress and record-setting performances, the education sector demonstrates its capacity for excellence while identifying clear paths for continuous improvement in CX delivery. ACXPA’s benchmarking services are poised to help providers leverage these insights for sustained success.
We’re grateful to our sponsors for their support, which allows us to share this valuable information with you at no cost.
Overall CX Rankings for Education Providers (Q3 2024)
Q2 2024
Q3 2024
Trend
The Overall CX Rankings reflect how easy it is to connect and communicate with a live customer service agent at an Australian Education business via their contact centre.
The rankings are determined by the Accesibility rankings (how easy it was to connect) and Agent Mastery rankings (the interaction with the live agent) with weightings applied to the key drivers of customer satisfaction.
Accessibility Rankings for Education Providers (Q3 2024)
Q2 2024
Q3 2024
Trend
The Call Centre Accessibility Rankings reflect how easy it was for customers to speak with a live person about a new course enquiry.
59 individual elements are assessed, capturing the entire experience before interacting with a live agent, including call centre queue wait times, how easy it was to find the phone number, the number of menu options (e.g., press 1 for this, 2 for that), messaging times, hold music, audio quality, and lots more.
As these are calls for new course enrolments, Mystery Shopping calls are terminated if wait times exceed 10:00 minutes.
We’re grateful to our sponsors for their support, which allows us to share this valuable information with you at no cost.
Agent Mastery Rankings for Education Providers (Q3 2024)
Q2 2024
Q3 2024
Trend
Agent Mastery is a measure of the agent’s skill, assessed across five core competencies (Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Energy) and 18 individual call-handling behaviours directly correlating to better customer and business outcomes.
Recent CX Statistics continue to highlight the importance of interacting live with a customer service employee and the preference to speak to a live agent rather than an automated chatbot/AI, etc.
We’re grateful to our sponsors for their support, which allows us to share this valuable information with you at no cost.
HIGHEST/LOWEST RANKINGS FOR Q3 2024 (Education Providers)
The High/Low Rankings below provide a snapshot of the range of performance across the internet retailers for eight selected metrics—just a small preview of the 80+ metrics available in the Education Providers CX Benchmarking reports.
Additional Averages Included:
To provide a broader context, we’ve also included:
• The Education Sector Average, offering an overview of the sector’s overall performance.
• The Australian Call Centre Industry Average, enabling you to compare how the education providers stack up against other Australian contact centre industry sectors.
Report Downloads & Lifetime Averages
Benchmarking Data for Other Industry Sectors
In addition to the education sector information we publish, you can also view Australian Call Centre Industry Benchmarking data for additional industry sectors – click the links below to learn more and view data.
